Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s [PS2]

The 80s theme is also a fairly shrewd business decision on Harmonix' part, given that these songs will appeal to the over-30 set who can afford to pay full price for an expansion pack that consists only of 30 songs. There's nothing new in here beyond the songs. The modes are the same, with the same three multiplayer options and that indispensable practice mode to help you learn the harder songs. Visually, nothing substantial has changed. The characters wear 80s themed outfits, and you'll see a few splashes of new artwork.

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But the bulk of the effort clearly went into the songs themselves, with artwork and presentation simply carried over from Guitar Hero II. You can earn money from the campaign mode to buy new guitars and guitar paint jobs, but there are no new outfits and no bonus tracks. And the only unlockable character is the same Grim Ripper from the previous games, albeit in a tackier outfit. So whether this is a good value comes down to whether you're willing to pay $2 a song for a whole mess of songs, half of which you might not know or like. In other words, basically twice what you'd pay to get them on iTunes.

And when it all comes down to it, it's absolutely worth it to breathe new life into Guitar Hero II. Because there's nothing quite so exhilarating as facing down a whole long list of new Guitar Hero songs to unlock, learn, practice, and perfect. After all, this is the stuff of pretend rock gods in their living rooms, no matter what the decade.